Monday, July 19, 2010

The LoadDown - 07/19/2010

Monday roundup...

WiiWare -- Three games this week.  AquaSpace is another virtual aquarium.  HoopWorld is an odd fantasy-themed three-on-three basketball game.  And Furry Legends is a substantial platformer with physics-based puzzles and a retro N64-style indie-game look. 



Wii Virtual Console -- The crickets are chirping here again this week, likely because three titles arrived on WiiWare.

DSiWare -- Five titles this week.  Petz Kittens brings Ubisoft's virtual pet franchise to the DSi.  Scrabble Tools is a utility/training program for fans of the venerable word game.  Hospital Havoc is a time/resource management game.  Crazy Sudoku is yet another Sudoko game for the DSi.  And Happy Birthday Mart is a shop-simulation game, sort of in the vein of Animal Crossing with 24 minigames.  (I believe the creature depicted below is a cheerful hippo, but could also be some sort of ravenous insect monster):




XBox Live Arcade -- Two games last week.  DeathSpank is an action-RPG with story and (unfortunately inconsistently funny) humor contributions by the legendary Ron Gilbert (The Secret of Monkey Island) -- it has dialogue trees and a very nice 2D/3D cartoon look; gameplay consists largely of a series of fetch quests, but it's all very nicely presented and fun to play.  Deadliest Warrior: The Game is a one-on-one fighter based on the Spike TV series, but focusing on eight historical warrior types and weapons to keep the battles even.

Game Room -- Game Pack 007 arrives, and its first week of unlocks includes Atari 2600 classics Barnstorming and Fishing Derby from Activision, and the rare Quadrun, an Atari Club exclusive back in the day, with an impressive smidgen of voice synthesis.  Last week also saw the release of Konami's venerable arcade hit Gyruss, and Intellivision title Hover Force, a rareish 1986 release salvaged from the wreckage of Mattel Electronics by successor company INTV Corp.

PS3 on PSN -- Two games last week: DeathSpank (see above), and Landit Bandit, an interesting helicopter piloting game combining realistic physics with elements of Pilotwings and Crazy Taxi.

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